ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Saving Clark’s neck? Panic at Christmas display

AUSTIN, Texas

A holiday display meant to re-create a scene from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” looked a little too real and caused a veteran to spring into action.

The Heerlein family placed a dummy representing Clark Griswold dangling from the gutter of their Austin, Texas, home, with a ladder tipping beneath him.

A veteran passing by thought it was the real thing and wrestled the ladder up while shouting, “Can you reach it?”

KVUE-TV reports the man called police, who arrived and advised the family they were getting calls about the display.

They have since put up a sign that says “Clark G is part of our Christmas display please do not call 911.”

Iowa council gives final OK to ‘toy’ firearms ban

SIOUX CITY, Iowa

A city council in northwest Iowa has banned people from carrying some types of “toy” firearms.

The Sioux City Council voted recently for a third time to adopt an ordinance that bans pellet and BB guns. The ordinance doesn’t ban Nerf or squirt guns, or guns that shoot suction-cup darts.

Sioux City Police Capt. Mark Kirkpatrick has said officers have had multiple encounters with replica weapons and faced the question of whether to use deadly force. He has said people carrying toy firearms tend to be teenagers or young adults seeking personal protection or street credibility.

The Sioux City Police Department says no one in the city has died from a police encounter while carrying a toy firearm, but that there are more than 50 such deaths nationwide each year.

NY police officer rescues chicken from shed fire

OSSINING, N.Y.

A police officer who saved a chicken from becoming a roaster is taking a ribbing from his fellow officers.

Body cam video released by the Ossining, N.Y., police shows the officer responding to a shed fire recently. He removed some propane tanks when he discovered the chicken. The bird clucks as the officer carries the bird to safety. He told the owner, “I got your chicken.”

The police department wrote on Facebook, “Somewhere around the first day of field training some salty cop usually hits you with, ‘Kid, you wouldn’t believe what goes on around here if I told you.’”

The department says if you ever wanted to get a hard time from your co-workers, “be a hero ... to a chicken.”

Associated Press